


Hey Blue Eyes

by therunawaytoph



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda, M/M, Misunderstandings, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, i swear it's nicer than it sounds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:08:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25763449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therunawaytoph/pseuds/therunawaytoph
Summary: Sokka thinks his heart might explode. He thinks he finally understands when people used to say that their heart was beating out of their chest because he’s currently clutching his as he races his apartment. If he passes out from feeling every emotion known to mankind, plus three more, he’ll die and Katara would never let him live it down.Sokka meets his soulmate but the universe hates him and gave him one that doesn't want him back.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 584





	Hey Blue Eyes

Sokka thinks his heart might explode. He thinks he finally understands when people used to say that their heart was beating out of their chest because he’s currently clutching his as he races his apartment. If he passes out from feeling every emotion known to mankind, plus three more, he’ll die and Katara would never let him live it down.

He runs up the stairs so quickly he thinks he’ll be sick once he opens the door. “Katara!” Sokka yells for his sister and attempts to catch his breath. Katara’s smart. She’ll know what to do. Right?

“What?” She’s at the small desk in their cramped space. Sharing an apartment near campus sounded like a better idea than it was. Their individual capacity for mess is extreme but together it’s a nightmare for anyone but them. Her ecology work essentially decorates every wall while Sokka’s loose engineering materials are scattered on every surface. Katara is currently attempting to add more to her messy board but abandons it quickly once she sees her brother’s panicked expression. “Sokka? Are you alright? Did something happen? Was it-“

“I found my soulmate.” 

She almost rolls her eyes, of course her brother would make the announcement of his soulmate a dramatic event to rival the Ember Island theater club. “Why do you sound so down? Does he not like your dumb jokes?” Katara tries to tease him but upon closer inspection, sees tears in his eyes as he shakes his head. Katara wants to hug and jump with him and celebrate, why isn’t he happy? She’d been over the moon when she met Aang and gets those same butterflies now as she did when they were fourteen. She knows that asking Sokka bluntly will make him shut himself off from her. She ignores the question burning in her brain and decides to ask when he met his soulmate.

“Just after philosophy. Ran straight into him and dropped everything and before I even said thanks he said it.” He slides his back against the door to the ground and hugs his knees as Katara tries to understand. Isn’t that good? He’s found the guy supposed to be the love of his life. Granted, kind of awkward way to meet your soulmate, but not bad by any accounts. It could even be a fun story to tell at parties. 

She kneels down next to him and awkwardly pats his shoulder, trying to find the words to ask him what’s even wrong. He’s being awfully cryptic about whatever happened so it must be bad. “Is there something wrong with him?” Bad question, Katara knows, but she can’t think of another reason for Sokka to be in this state.

Sokka shakes his head again. “Nothing. He’s tall and has a scar on his face but he’s still so pretty and has a nice smile and these golden eyes but,” he takes a deep breath before whispering, “ and he blocked out his mark.”

Katara certainly wasn’t expecting that. “Are you sure? Nobody does that. Sokka, maybe you didn’t see rig-“

“I did,” he says matter-of-factly. His teary eyes are replaced with hurt ones. “Pretty boy picked up my book. I saw a black rectangle on the wrist that handed me my shit. He said ‘hey blue eyes, you dropped this’ and I ran away. Simple as that.” Sokka sighs and rests his forehead on his knees. People don’t cover up their marks unless they definitely don’t want anything to do with whoever the universe decides for them. Toph’s parents tried so desperately for her to not get her mark covered. She had been so angry that she couldn’t see her soulmate words that she decided if she couldn’t read them, nobody could. It took almost two years for Sokka to coax more about what happened out of her. She didn’t want to rely on the universe for her soulmate when she’s already relied on herself for so much. Besides, what if the person who says those words to her is a liar and takes advantage of her? She confessed all this to Sokka before threatening death upon him if he ever divulges this information. He tries not to think more of Toph and what she said and focuses back on Katara. Her eyes look so pitying. He groans, “I must sound so pathetic.”

She hugs her brother comfortingly as she can in this weird floor position. “Maybe his parents weren’t soulmates and didn’t want their kid to feel forced into it?” She was grasping at straws for reasons that would let her brother have his soulmate.

“No way. He doesn’t want to be with me.” He sounds so certain of this and Katara’s heart breaks a little. After saying one of his darkest fears out loud, Sokka feels himself getting angry with his ‘soulmate’ whoever he was. “He doesn’t even know me!” He stands up suddenly leaving Katara on the floor. “I mean, I don’t know him either but at least I would give him a chance!” What kind of person decides that the universe and their soulmate can just fuck off like that? He better have a good reason.

“Sokka! Calm down!” Katara’s calls for her brother's attention are drowned out by his anger. She just wants him to think logically for a minute. If she can get him to do that, maybe she can call Suki or Aang, they’re much better at making anyone feel better. And Katara empathizes with her brother, she does, but she’s never seen him so worked up.

“No! You know what,” Sokka stomps back towards the door, ignoring his pleading and placating sister, “I’m going to give him a piece of my mind!” he shouts before walking out, leaving Katara how much of Sokka’s mind will be left once he’s given this guy a piece of it.

Sokka wonders something similar as he tries to find his sort-of-soulmate-but-also-very-much-a-dick-guy. What is he going to say? ‘Hey! You’re supposed to be my soulmate! What’s the deal, man?’ He’s far too angry at this point, but he needs answers. People don’t just abandon their soulmates. Sokka demands to know why he’s being left abandoned.

He walks around determinedly and sees pretty soulmate boy leaving a tea shop called the Jasmine Dragon on the outskirts of campus, still wearing an apron. Sokka somehow gets angrier at how cute the boy he can’t have looked. He’s wearing different clothes than he was earlier. The green shirt he’s wearing makes him look friendlier than he did in the red before. Sokka wants to murder the butterflies in his stomach and makes a beeline for him anyways. Soulmate boy notices him coming over and gives him a small smile, his golden eyes lighting up a little. He looks as if he’s about to say hi to the approaching boy when Sokka starts shouting.

“You’re a piece of shit, you know that? You got anything to say for yourself, asshole?” Sokka makes sure the other boy can’t get a word in. He’s even more upset than he thought and wants to keep ripping into the boy who ripped his heart to bits until he cries like Sokka did. But then he looks at him and regrets ever opening his big mouth. 

His golden eyes are now big and sad but he looks like he’s trying to mask it by looking affronted. Sokka can’t look at him in the eyes anymore. The boy chokes out a “What?” before deciding that glaring at this rude random guy would be easier than his trembling voice defending himself. 

Sokka feels awful but it’s a little late to apologize at this point without getting a semblance of an answer. He yanks his arm and holds up the blacked-out rectangle on his skin and holds it in comparison against the words on his own. “This! You said my words to me and I look down and you have the stupid fucking soulmate cop-out on your wrist! Do you know how much that hurts?” Sokka’s anger has turned back into hurt, but this time he doesn’t want anyone else to hurt with him. He just wants to know why this guy deemed him unlovable before they even met. 

The other boy takes his arm back defensively and seems to be able to distance himself from his emotions long enough to stumble out, “Well, you’d block yours out too if you had my words.” His face is cold and hurt.

“What are you talking about?”

“Did you say anything back to me after I picked up your shit?” Sokka is about to reply that yes, of course he did when he gets prematurely cut off, “No! So you know what my fucking words were? You’re a piece of shit, you know that? You got anything to say for yourself, asshole? That’s what’s on my wrist, jackass!” He looks like he’s about to cry and turns to get himself away from this conversation when Sokka grabs his shoulder and tries to ignore the flinch he sees. 

“Fuck. Shit. No, wait, I’m sorry! I’m sorry. I-I just- I thought you decided you didn’t want a soulmate. Didn’t want me,” he adds on sadly. “I forgot it worked two ways and- fuck- I’m just so sorry that those words are, er, were on you.” Sokka must look so pathetic because the other boy’s look softens a bit.

He looks up at him, a little more collected than before but still hurt. “I guess I get it. I don’t forgive it, now at least, but I’d be hurt too,” He holds out his hand, “Zuko.”

“Sokka.” Sokka distantly thinks that most soulmates don’t begin their relationship, if Sokka could even call what they have or will have a relationship, with a handshake and a screaming match.

Zuko looks down at his wrist and delicately touches his covered soulmate words. He looks as if he’s weighing options in his head when he starts talking again. “I know some people block out their marks because they want to choose for themselves and not the universe or whatever, but I just couldn’t, wouldn’t be with someone whose first words to me were that. My father saw my mother’s words and said them to her to coerce her into being with him. He was,” Zuko took a shaky breath, the left side of his face twitching a small bit, “awful. I didn’t want a relationship like that, no matter what the universe said. I’d rather be alone than be with someone like that.” Zuko tears his eyes away from his blacked out wrist. “I won’t apologize for that,” he says a bit stronger.

Sokka nods. He also silently decides to never let whatever hurt him before do it again. He never wants Zuko to look so hurt again. “I’m sorry,” he begins before cringing at how lame an apology it is, “I completely understand. If you don’t want to be with me that’s okay.” That was a complete lie and Sokka hoped that Zuko knew it through some soulmate power shit. He wonders if he’s already jumping the gun with his feelings again.

Zuko looks at Sokka in the eyes, the same blue eyes he mentions in the soulmate mark, and says, “I think I’d like to try anyway. Are you alright with your soulmate having blacked out words?”

“As long as you’re okay with having a jackass for a soulmate.” 

Zuko smiles like the sun. “I think I can manage.”

Sokka smiles back.

**Author's Note:**

> this was the first thing i've ever written i hope it's good :)  
> and i'm on tumblr!! https://www.tumblr.com/blog/therunawaytoph


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